We Outside: Nor-Cal Bike Life Stories
From Sacramento to San Jose, from the Central Valley to San Francisco, “Bike Life,” the big BMX wheelie bike scene, offers an outlet for kids and adults to push themselves physically, connect with peers, and find role models and community. Can a renegade bicycle movement be seen as a real sport and celebrated for its positive attributes, or will it forever exist on the fringe?
Bike Life is an urban-centered bicycle riding culture and social movement, characterized by kids and adults riding seemingly endless wheelies. Beneath the fast-paced and daring façade, thrives a vibrant community where riders of all ages and backgrounds encourage and uplift one another and form family-like bonds. Adults provide structure and guidance to throngs of passionate youth, and in turn, the youth provide inspiration by constantly pushing boundaries of what’s possible on two (and often one) wheels. Together, Bike Life offers camaraderie, positive role-models, an outlet from stress, a reason to get outside, serious exercise, and more. It’s a critical and healthier alternative to what’s often confronting people at home and in the streets. Participants mostly agree: bikes unite and the vibes are positive!
However, just below the surface exists a palpable tension between those who want to legitimize and expand Bike Life to appeal to a wider community and those who want to ride how and wherever they please, regardless of which rules they break or who they piss off. Indeed, to those outside the community, Bike Life is often seen as disruptive, fringe, and even illegal. Group rides can interrupt the flow of today’s car-centric life, and kids often express their chops and swagger by swerving wheelies into oncoming vehicles—mostly endangering themselves, but causing panic in drivers as well. Also, after all-day rides, hungry teens (with scant resources) have been known to shoplift a drink or snack from local convenience stores. Not surprisingly, these are the stories that end up dominating media headlines and informing public perception.
Through a series of 15- to 20-minute documentaries, We Outside explores this multifaceted and dynamic culture, including questions of legitimacy currently at the center of the Nor-Cal Bike Life movement. Viewers will meet daring riders, adult mentors, and compelling youth. Verite footage and interviews, recorded by the filmmaking team, and by the riders themselves, offer insights to their daily lives, aspirations, and struggles. The viewers learn what the adults have overcome and what the youth are up against—incarceration, community violence, and limited parental oversight. They come to appreciate the dedication and athleticism behind the stunts, and the pain from failures. They begin to understand where paths converge, in the camaraderie and community of the group rides, and the conflict and in-fighting where they diverge–over issues like stealing and endangering pedestrians. Bike Life builds bonds, but can it transcend the tough conditions of the streets from which it rises?
Producer/Director - Greg Miller, LifeCycle Films
IG: @lifecycle_films
